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Sunday, 27 January 2013

This is most definitely a weekend dish for me - not only is it higher in weight watchers pro points at 19pp per serving than I would normally splurge on an evening meal, but it takes a little while in the oven. It could be tweaked easily enough, by reducing the number of slices of garlic bread used to top it (the casserole underneath is actually only 7pp!). I tend to use a few weeklies on my meals at the weekend though, so the extra garlic bread was a special treat.

1. Using a casserole dish that can be used on the hob and in the oven, soften the onion, carrot and celery with some calorie controlled cooking spray and, once softened, add half of the garlic to the pan. Stir fry for 1 minute.

2. Add the beef and crumbled stock cube and brown/seal the meat.

3. Add the water, drained flageolet beans, the tin of tomatoes, rosemary, chilli, half the oregano and salt and pepper to taste. Stir in the tomato puree.

4. Cover and transfer the dish to the preheated oven. Give this at least 2 hours (3 if you can spare it) to get the meat nice and tender. Check occasionally and in order to keep a nice thick consistency either remove the lid to allow water to evaporate or add a little water if it starts to dry out, as necessary.

5. Once the casserole is cooked, split it between two individual sized oven dishes (or you can leave it as it is and add the garlic bread but it will be difficult to serve).

6. Add the remaining garlic to the ICBINBL and combine so that the garlic is well distributed. Add the remaining oregano and season to taste.

7. Slice the french stick into an even number of slices and spread the slices with the garlic butter on one side.

8. Lay the garlic bread over the top of the meat (as you would top a shepherds pie with mash) and return the dishes to the oven for 10 minutes or until the garlic butter has melted into the bread and started to crisp up.